Other
names for Beltane include: May Day, Cetsamhain
('opposite Samhain'), Walpurgisnacht (in Germany),
and Roodmas (the medieval Church's name).
Magick
associated with Beltane: abandon, assertion,
beauty, conservation, creativity, desire, expansion,
expressiveness, excitement, fertility magick,
fulfillment, handfasting, life, passion, phallic
magick, prosperity, safety, sensuality, sexuality,
union, warmth, and willfulness.
Altar
decorations: butter churns, chalice, daisy
chains, eggs, flowery crowns, honey, may pole,
mirrors, phallic symbols, rabbit symbols, ribbons,
rod, spear, staff, strings of beads, and spring
flowers.
Colours:
blue, brown, dark yellow, green, pink, red, white,
and yellow.
Foods:
barley cake, chocolate, dairy products,
herbal salads, honey, oatmeal and oats, oysters, red
fruits, red wine.
Herbs
/ Incense / Oils: apple, birch, bluebells,
broom, calendula, daisy, dittany of Crete, elder,
fir, frankincense, foxglove, grape vine, hawthorn,
hazel, honeysuckle, lilac, lily of the valley, mint,
mugwort, oak, passion flower, primrose, rose,
rosemary, rowan, sandalwood, St. Johns wort,
thyme, vanilla, willow, yarrow, and yellow cowslip.
Stones:
amber, bloodstone, carnelian, emerald, malachite,
rose quartz, sapphire.
HISTORY
OF BELTANE
Beltane ushers in the fifth month of
the modern calendar year, the month of May (Northern
Hemisphere). This month is named in honor of the
goddess Maia, originally a Greek mountain nymph,
later identified as the most beautiful of the Seven
Sisters, the Pleiades. By Zeus, she is also the
mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's parents were
Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph.
The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane, which is
derived from the Irish Gaelic 'Bealtaine' or the
Scottish Gaelic 'Bealtuinn', meaning 'Bel-fire', the
fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus).
He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern god
Baal.
By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration
begins on sundown of the preceding day, because the
Celts always figured their days from sundown to
sundown. And sundown was the proper time for Druids
to kindle the great Bel-fires on the tops of the
nearest beacon hill (such as Tara Hill, Co. Meath, in
Ireland). These 'need-fires' had healing properties,
and sky-clad Witches would jump through the flames to
ensure protection.
Other Beltane customs include walking the circuit of
one's property ('beating the bounds'), repairing
fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney-sweeps
and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris dances,
sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens
bathing their faces in the dew of morning to retain
their youthful beauty.
In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart
Farrar, the Beltane celbration was principly a time
of '...unashamed human sexuality and fertility.' Such
associations include the obvious phallic symbolism of
the Maypole and riding the hobby horse. Even a
seemingly innocent children's nursery rhyme, 'Ride a
cock horse to Banburry Cross...' retains such
memories. And the next line '...to see a fine Lady on
a white horse' is a reference to the annual ride of
'Lady Godiva' though Coventry. Every year for nearly
three centuries, a sky-clad village maiden (elected
Queen of the May) enacted this Pagan rite, until the
Puritans put an end to the custom.
Long
after the Christian form of marriage (with its
insistance on sexual monogamy) had replaced the older
Pagan handfasting, the rules of strict fidelity were
always relaxed for the May Eve rites. Names such as
Robin Hood, Maid Marion, and Little John played an
important part in May Day folklore, often used as
titles for the dramatis personae of the celebrations.
And modern surnames such as Robinson, Hodson,
Johnson, and Godkin may attest to some distant May
Eve spent in the woods.